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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers

SUSSEX, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin company that prints Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and L.L. Bean catalogs says it plans to hire hundreds of people immediately.
Quad/Graphics is restarting equipment in Wisconsin that was shut down during the recession. The Sussex company is closing plants in Ohio, Mississippi, Tennessee and Nevada and moving production to Wisconsin.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — As the Notre Dame football team drilled on its practice field, Declan Sullivan stood high above the turf in a hydraulic lift, videotaping the session so players could get an aerial view of their performance.
Suddenly, the wind, already whipping so much that Sullivan tweeted that it was "terrifying," surged as high as 51 mph.

SEATTLE (AP) — A swell of spending by businesses on new computers, software and servers helped push Microsoft Corp.'s earnings for the most recent quarter past Wall Street's expectations.
Business spending on technology slowed to a trickle during the economic downturn. Microsoft's report, released after the market closed Thursday, is the most recent evidence that corporate spending is back in full swing.

PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix man and the company he heads have been indicted by a grand jury for violating federal arms export laws by shipping military aircraft engines to the Venezuelan air force and providing training on how to maintain them.
The indictment announced on Thursday alleges that Floyd D.

Southworth Products (Portland, ME) has redesigned its Dandy Lift line of lifter/transporters for a higher level of convenience and comfort to make work faster and safer. The hydraulic systems offer infinite height adjustment, with a 20:1 mechanical advantage. Seven models are available with a range of capacities (330 to 1,760 pounds), lifting heights (29” to 49.

Moyno, Inc. (Springfield, OH) has developed the Moyno L-Frame Progressing Cavity Pump for handling clean, thin, shear-sensitive products to viscous, corrosive, abrasive slurries, and sludges. According to the company, they are built for dependable performance and maximum operating efficiency.

The Linear Positioning Stages from H2W Technologies (Santa Clarita, CA) use a moving magnet voice technology to provide a high resolution (from 50 nm), zero cogging, high reliability, and a long service life. The stages can be mounted horizontally or vertically, and are ideal for short stroke positioning applications, according to the company.

Metabo Corporation (West Chester, PA) has introduced a new angle grinder in the Metabo Metal Master series — the W24-180 — which is designed for cutting and grinding metal. With a 7” wheel, the tool offers 124 inch-pounds of torque and a no-load speed of 8,500 rpm. The 15 A, 4.

Struggling to strike a balance between keeping expenditure and turnover low, suppliers are modifying their starkly utilitarian factory complexes, bearing employee comfort and recreational needs in mind.
by Gordon Styles, Engineer & Managing Director, Star Prototype
The growing demands of China's new generation of workers are eroding the cost competitiveness of many export products, particularly those in labor-intensive industries such as garments, footwear and bags.

RIP, cassette Walkman.
Anyone who was alive in the ’80s or ’90s fondly remembers the Sony Walkman, once the world’s smallest cassette player. Of course, the march of technology makes all things obsolete, this gadget included. Sony has recently announced they will discontinue selling the product in most markets.

What’s 830 pounds, can be moved using only one human thumb, and can travel 100 miles using just one gallon of gas? Apparently, the car featured in this video. The Edison 2 is this year’s winner of the Automotive X Prize competition. It’s certainly not a luxury automobile an executive would buy to impress his or her friends and colleagues, but it's a pretty impressive (and efficient) vehicle in its own right.

Richard Branson, billionaire and adventurous entrepreneur, recently unveiled the runway at what will someday be the world’s first commercial spaceport. While the actual craft that will take aspiring "astronauts" into space isn't quite ready yet, those who have already booked their six-figure ticket are eager to get into the air (and beyond it) some 12 to 18 months from now.

Styrofoam is well-known as an environmental disaster, considering that it can stick around for centuries after we throw it out. The problem is, it's relatively cheap to make compared to the alternatives, and it uses easily-procured petroleum.
Product designer Eben Bayer reveals his recipe for a new, fungus-based packaging material.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (AP) — The forest green algae bubbling in a stainless steel fermenting tank in a suburban warehouse may look like primordial pond scum, but it is a promising new source of domestically produced fuels being tested on the nation's jets and warships.
In a laboratory just a few steps away from the warehouse, white-coated scientists for a company called Solazyme are changing the genetic makeup of algae to construct a new generation of fuels.

HONOLULU (AP) — There's a story behind the blue, white and green plastic covering the surface of the Pacific Ocean vacuum cleaner. They're tiny bits of plastic collected from one of Hawaii's dirtiest beaches, Kahuku, where waves dump trash from the Pacific all day long.
The machine made by Electrolux AB is fully functional and can suck up dirt from a rug like any other vacuum.

MOUNT PLEASANT, Wis. (AP) — It's another day off for production workers at the Case plant in Racine County.
A tornado tore a section of the roof off the plant in Mount Pleasant Tuesday, sending workers scrambling for cover. Two employees suffered minor injuries.
Case spokesman Duane Nelson says the temporary shutdown includes all three plant functions; manufacturing, the North American parts operation and service training.

BOSTON (AP) — British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline PLC will pay $750 million to settle allegations that it knowingly manufactured and sold adulterated drugs, including the popular antidepressant Paxil, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts said.
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz announced Tuesday that the London-based company will pay $150 million in criminal fines and $600 million in civil penalties related to faulty manufacturing processes at its plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico.

SEATTLE (AP) — Johnson & Johnson, Mattel Inc. and other manufacturers of children's products would be required to report whether toys, cosmetics, jewelry, apparel and other items contain certain harmful chemicals, under new rules proposed by Washington state.
Officials have come up with a list of 59 chemicals that would trigger reporting to the state.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A surge in demand for commercial aircraft lifted orders for big-ticket manufacturedgoods in September, but business spending that signals expansion plans weakened.
The Commerce Department says orders for durable goods rose 3.3 percent last month. Overall, it was the best showing since January.